Saturday, January 24

Today at about 4am Sou woke up with pain in his upper thigh again. Because of his pain level, he received morphine again. Two hours later they gave him some pain pills to help. I ordered his breakfast a little after 8am. I included some cereal for myself to spare the trouble of going downstairs. Because Sou's pain has not been resolved, one of the docs ordered a CT of his pelvis. The nurse came in after breakfast and gave him two 1000cc bottles of sterile water with contrast. At that time Sheila had called, so I went near the elevators to talk. During that time, Sou drank one of the bottles. I returned to the room and he began to work on the second bottle. The group of docs came in to the room. Today there was only three of them (the leader, one of the regulars, and the fellow who tried to talk Sou into giving marrow up for research). Today I noticed that the leader was wearing cowboy boots with his snug jeans. He also had a european accent which I didn't think tied well with the outfit. He asked Sou the regular questions about his pain and how he felt today. The regular, which looked kind of asian with short wavy hair, told Sou he didn't really need to be drinking the contrast. 

"But you're doing good, it might actually help you poop," she added. It had actually been a while since Sou had a bm; Tuesday was the last time. They also decided to give him a stronger laxative. His pills he had been taking for pain was the likely cause for his constipation. And then some lighter news came.

"We're actually aiming for you to go home on Monday, maybe Tuesday," said the leader. "Where do you guys live?," he asked.

"Mountlake Terrace," I told him. 

"He'll need to go to SCCA everyday for his followups. It might be more convenient to find a place closer because of all the traffic," he told me. He was right, it would be more convenient to get a closer place where they had shuttles to SCCA. But places charge about $100 a day. If we needed to stay there two weeks, that's $1,400. To rent a car and drive to SCCA from my mom's place, that would only cost $608.19 according to Enterprise. And that's including the underage fee for me. It was a no-brainer. So, after the docs told us that he did not need to drink the contrast, the nurse came into the room.

"Arrr you done yet?" she asked with her filipino accent.

"No, the doctor just said that he didn't need to drink that," I told her.

"Nooouuuu he needs to durink dat one! The doctor does not know about dat one! Dee peeple downstairs said he needs to pinish two bottles," she said. 

"Pour me more Jheri," Sou said as pulled the blankets over him. He still had 3/4 of a bottle left. The phone began to ring. It was mom. Her and Kaliya were on their way and wanted to know if I wanted anything for lunch. 

"Anything that's on the way. I don't care," I said.

"Well, we're here in Lynnwood."

"OOh okay! L&L," I told her. "Same thing as last time, bbq chicken with katsu."

"We'll be right there," and then she hung up. About 20-30 minutes later, she called and said they were up the street but needed to find a gas station to inflate her tire. Her "tire pressure" light came on. I hate it when that happens. Even though the tire looks okay, that light is always in the corner of your eye. And half the time I can never find an air pump in Anchorage that works. Later on my mom and sister showed up. They took turns playing games online off my laptop. Kaliya spotted several white hairs on the back of my head and wanted to pull 'em all out.

"I usually do this to Auntie Chit, Jheri and she gives me money after," she said. "Are you gonna give me money?"

"No," I replied. She continued to pull out the white hairs anyways. I made a deal with her. Ten cents for every strand. She ended up finding 28. I only had a dollar on me and issued an IOU. 

When Sou was finished drinking all of the contrast, the nurse came in to start an IV because she said that the PICC line cannot be used for contrast. She also gave him a couple of pills and sent him downstairs for his CT. Sou requested that I follow him downstairs. I had to wait outside when they did the actual CT so I waited outside the door. I noticed that they had a bathroom nearby. How convenient! Sheesh. They need a setup like that at Prov. for all the poor patients getting barium enemas. 

When it was time for Sou to hop back into his bed, it was obvious that he was having difficulty. Today his pain was worse than ever. Even to scooch up in bed was such a chore. After 30 minutes of returning back to his room, my mom decided that it was time for them to go. I walked them downstairs and decided to get dinner on the way back. Even though it was still early for dinner, I didn't want to come all the way back downstairs an hour later. When I returned, Sou was sound asleep. Occasionally he would wake up to use the bathroom or just because of the pain. At 6pm he was issued some oxy. That obviously was no help. While the nurse came in to take his vitals, she said, "Yea Sou, I think you have an abscess." It turns out that when his fever went away, he was given decadron. Yesterday they decided to discontinue the decadron to see if his fever would return. Well, today, his fever returned. If I recall, when his pain started I remember mentioning to the doctor that he had a suspected abscess in Alaska. They "peeked" at it and said it was fine. The second doc "peeked" at it and the word "cellulitis" came out of his mouth. On a third occasion, I heard "possible abscess". Whatever it is, it needs to be resolved.

The next couple of hours was crazy. After getting his daily meds and vital signs taken, his nurse mentioned that Sou's output had been low. He received some lasix earlier and still hasn't been urinating much. 

"Next time you go to the bathroom Sou, can you call me right after," she told him. 

"He just went like, 5 minutes ago," I said.

"Oh good, we'll do a bladder scan now then." She left the room for a few seconds then returned with the cart. The machine said that Sou still had 1000cc of urine still in his bladder. She asked if the doctor had been in to talk to us regarding the results of the CT earlier. I said no. She mentioned that they did see some inflammation around the bladder which would explain why he wasn't urinating much. Also, his blood pressure was really low (92/35). His fever was over 103 again. 

Shortly after, the doc on shift (never seen him before) came in and said that Sou actually does have an abscess. He said had Sou roll over to his side so he could "peek" at it. He decided that he would have a surgeon come look at it. Shortly after, they rolled in the portable x-ray machine to take a look at his chest. Later this dude named Steve came by. He looked a lot like my cousin Dawne's husband. I looked at Sou and said, "Hey Dan's here!"

"Nuh? Wha??" he said. Steve walked in and Sou knew what I was talking about. Once again, Sou rolled on to his side in a huge amount of pain. He poked at it and touched it making Sou groan. When it was all over, he took off his gloves and said, "Okay, nothing to eat or drink. You'll probably go into the operating room tomorrow morning." Then he left the room. They also decided to put a foley catheter in too. When they said that I almost went into escape mode again, trying to think of ways to not be present when that happened. Two nurses came in and got the job done in about 5 minutes. It wasn't as eventful as I thought. No kicking or screaming. Not one peep out of him. The next task was for him to overcome the surgery safely.

Around midnight, Steve and a female surgeon came to Sou's room. She also wanted to take a peek at his backside. They said that his platelets were low and that he would need a transfusion for the surgery. Arrangements still needed to be made before they could tell us when the surgery would take place. It was most likely in the morning. At 1:45am the nurse walked into the room and said, "I guess they're ready for you now."

"Like, surgery now? That was quick," I said.

"Yea I know!" she added as she wrapped the blood pressure cuff around Sou's arm. She needed to check his vitals one more time before they brought him downstairs. His blood pressure 87/32 after already receiving 1 bag of IV fluids. When he left for the operation, I decided to take a nap.